Do you Think these Clothes are Going to Clean Themselves?

Few things strike as much dread into the middle of my day as much as the laundry. I think its right up there on my list of things I have learned to hate the drudgery of quite a long time ago. Vacuuming, kitty litter emptying and laundry. Hate em. We’ve put a man on the moon, how come I’m still doing this stuff the way my mom used to? Sure the washing machine is bigger and higher tech… but its the same boring job.

Well, scientists might actually have my best interests at heart. Mingce Long and Deyong Wu say they have developed a fabric coated with titanium dioxide (think suntan lotion ingredient) That breaks down dirt and kills different microbes when exposed to certain kinds of light, more specifically, their product can clean itself when exposed to sunlight… very nice.

The report on this fabric describes a regular cotton fabric that’s coated with nanoparticles (I told you about them yesterday, they’re a size between molecular and microscopic) made from a compound of titanium dioxide and nitrogen. Their tests show that a cotton fabric coated with theses particles removed an orange dye stain when it was exposed to sunlight, and the coating even stayed intact after washing and drying. What a minute, washing and drying? Am I missing the point here?

A similar study is being done at the University of California, where scientists have created another compound that also allows cotton to break down toxins and bacteria when exposed to light. Heck, I’ll just make my family eat dinner outside in the sun, and kill two birds with one stone. Now we just have to figure out a way for the food to cook itself, then, life will be good.